On behalf of the Nominating Committee, I am pleased to report the results of the 2014 election for AHA offices. The committee is extremely grateful to all the candidates who agreed to stand for Association elective office and committee positions despite their many other obligations. The Association depends for its continued well-being on the willingness of its members to serve. Elected candidates are indicated in boldface.

President

(1-year term)

Vicki L. Ruiz, Univ. of California, Irvine (Chicano/Latino history, US women’s history, immigration, labor, US West)

President-elect

(1-year term)

Carol Gluck, Columbia Univ. (modern Japan, World War II, history writing and public memory in Asia and the world)

Patrick Manning, Univ. of Pittsburgh (world history, Africa and African diaspora, migration history and theory, interdisciplinary and digital history)

Vice President, Research Division

(3-year term)

Fred Anderson, Univ. of Colorado Boulder (early modern North America, revolutionary and early national US)

Edmund Russell, Univ. of Kansas (environmental, American, global, technology, science)

Councilor Profession

(3-year term)

Paul Gardullo, National Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian Institution (African American history and culture, US cultural and social history, public history)

Valerie Paley, New-York Historical Society (US social and cultural history, public history, urban history)

Councilor Research

(3-year term)

David A. Bell, Princeton Univ. (early modern and modern France, Atlantic world in the age of revolution, nationalism, military history)

Ethan H. Shagan, Univ. of California, Berkeley (early modern European history, British history, history of religion, history of political thought)

Councilor Teaching

(3-year term)

Craig Perrier, Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools and Northeastern Univ. (K–16 history education, teacher preparation and development: curriculum and instruction, globalizing the US history survey, 20th-century world history, historical thinking skills, online and blended learning: using technology in education)

Brenda Santos, Achievement First Amistad High School, New Haven, CT (20th-century US history; race and racial formation; histories of public health, education, and welfare; women and gender; civil rights; secondary and postsecondary history instruction)

Committee on Committees

(3-year term)

Position 1

Sarah Knott, Indiana Univ. (early America; Atlantic World; age of revolutions; women, gender, and sexuality; history of maternity)

Michele Mitchell, New York Univ. (United States; African diaspora, including West/East/South Africa; gender and sexuality; feminist theory)

Committee on Committees

(3-year term)

Position 2

Daniel Bornstein, Washington Univ. in St. Louis (medieval and early modern Europe, Renaissance Italy, history of Christianity)

Craig Harline, Brigham Young Univ. (early modern European religion and culture, especially the tension between ideals and practice; the Low Countries; microhistory and creative nonfiction)

Nominating Committee

(3-year term)

Position 1

Jana K. Lipman, Tulane Univ. (US foreign relations, labor history, US empire, 20th-century US political history, US immigration and refugee history)

Nayan Shah, Univ. of Southern California (US and Canadian history, gender and sexuality studies, legal and medical history, Asian American)

Nominating Committee

(3-year term)

Position 2

Paula Alonso, George Washington Univ. (Latin American history, 19th and 20th centuries, Argentine history, political history, cultural history, women and gender, history of the press, history of ideas)

William Kelleher Storey, Millsaps Coll. (British Empire, southern Africa, environmental history, history of technology, world history)

Nominating Committee

(3-year term)

Position 3

David N. Myers, UCLA (Jewish intellectual and cultural history, European intellectual history, history of historiography, history of religion)

Leila Fawaz, Tufts Univ. (social and political history of the modern Middle East, late Ottoman Arab history, Europe and the Middle East, wars and civil wars, relations of city and state, culture and society from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean circa 1890–1920)

Election Process and Results

For 2014, the election cycle was adjusted from fall to spring/summer, with ballots mailed to members on June 1, with a return date of July 15. Ballots were e-mailed to 13,762 members, with 2,905 casting ballots before the AHA constitution deadline. This was 21.11 percent of the total receiving ballots, compared to the 21.63 percent casting ballots in 2013. With the advent of e-voting, there have been higher levels of participation in AHA elections than in the preceding two decades. The rate of return corresponds closely with the median range of voter participation in major associations, which is 24 percent.

The 2014 election marked the 10th year that AHA members had the opportunity to vote online to elect the Association’s officers. Survey & Ballot Systems of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, distributed election ballots to AHA members and received, validated, and tallied the votes. Members who furnished valid e-mail addresses and agreed to receive messages from the Association were asked via e-mail about their preference for an online or paper ballot. For the second year, all members who voted elected to do so online; no paper ballots were returned. Members were also invited to rate the voting process. Slightly more than 90 percent rated their response to the process as “very satisfied” or “satisfied.”

All AHA members who opted to vote electronically received an e-mail message with a unique, computer-generated user name and password, good only for the online balloting system. Once successfully logged in, members could read the election rules and link to the ballot, which was also linked to candidate biographies.

Members who lacked a valid e-mail address, or who requested the paper ballot, were mailed a paper ballot. The procedures for paper ballots were essentially the same as in previous years: after filling out the ballot, members returned it to SBS, which entered the information into the system. In theory, a member could receive both an e-mail and a paper ballot. Since the system tracked whether someone voted, separate from specific votes, the system accepted the first vote received and entered into the system from that voter (but without identifying the specific voter).

Individuals who renewed their membership or joined the AHA for the first time after the initial mailing of ballots were also allowed to vote in the election. Anyone who renewed or joined was able to vote online or to request a paper ballot.

Committee Deliberations

The Nominating Committee met in Washington, DC, on February 8 and 9. Present were Dane Kennedy, George Washington Univ., chair; Takashi Fujitani, Univ. of Toronto; Francois Furstenberg, Johns Hopkins Univ.; Thavolia Glymph, Duke Univ.; Sandra E. Greene, Cornell Univ.; Moon-Ho Jung, Univ. of Washington; Edward Muir, Northwestern Univ.; Sophia Rosenfeld, Univ. of Virginia; and Pamela Scully, Emory Univ. Also attending the meeting were James Grossman, executive director, and Sharon K. Tune, director, administration.

Deliberations began at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday and continued through late morning on Sunday. Members also circulated names and CVs of potential nominees via e-mail prior to the meeting. The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for February 6 and 7, 2015 (Friday and Saturday rather than the usual Saturday and Sunday). The chair of the 2015 Nominating Committee will be Takashi Fujitani.

The Nominating Committee moved to its principal task: nominating candidates for office. As in the past, the committee was very concerned that all AHA members should have input into the process. Every year the Nominating Committee issues several appeals for nominees to the membership at large. These appeals also stress the committee’s commitment to diversity of all kinds. In addition, the committee solicited nominees in an open letter published in the January 2014 issue of Perspectives on History. A number of AHA members responded to the open letter with suggestions; others replied with expressions of willingness to serve. The committee also retained and reviewed suggestions and CVs of people who had been considered over the previous five years. The nominations we received reflected the diversity of our organization with respect to gender, race, type of institution, field, and rank. In our deliberations, however, the committee expressed a special need for assistance in identifying candidates at the secondary-school level and those engaged in museum work. As in the past, we would also like to remind our colleagues to renew their membership in the organization before the end of the calendar year if they would like to be considered for nomination. In addition, we urge members to provide the AHA with multiple means of contacting them (home and office phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc.). This is very helpful to the committee when it seeks to get in touch with potential nominees during its deliberations.

Fulfilling its constitutional responsibility, the committee selected two nominees for each Association office and elective committee position to be filled by election in 2014, with terms to begin in January 2015. The committee sought to identify able and energetic members who could work well with colleagues, and who were, where relevant, familiar with broad sections of the profession beyond their immediate fields of expertise. In the case of the president and other top positions, the committee recognized the importance of selecting nominees who could represent the interests of historians to the public at large, and who had demonstrated some degree of administrative skill. In all its selections, the committee was anxious to reflect the broad diversity of the historical profession in terms of type of institution served, geographic location, subdiscipline, interests, gender, and cultural background.

The committee wishes to thank the staff of the Association for their support of our efforts. We also want to express our gratitude to our executive director, Jim Grossman, whose sage advice, positive energy, and hands-on assistance were invaluable to our deliberations this year. As always, we are especially grateful to Sharon K. Tune, director, administration, for her consistently outstanding guidance and advice, as well as her patience and good cheer. Last but not least, I personally would like to thank the other members of the committee and the members of the past two Nominating Committees. Their good humor, hard work, keen judgment, and broad knowledge of the profession made it possible for us to work swiftly and effectively. It was a great pleasure to have served with them.

Respectfully submitted,
Dane Kennedy, George Washington University
Chair, 2014 AHA Nominating Committee

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